Walmart has the 2018 Google Chromecast already, we confirm a most requested new feature

While we are waiting on what will be announced at the #madebyGoogle event tomorrow, one of the eventual candidates for the spotlight – the new Chromecast – is already being delivered to Walmart stores for purchase. Yep, after someone got the thing from Best Buy, now it’s the turn of a Walmart customer to go in, see the new Chromecast, express a desire to buy it, and come out of the store with it in hand.

The Walmart reps didn’t even have the entry in the sales database, so they just rung in the old model and let the guy buy it, then go and start a Reddit thread about it. Given that the local Walmart simply used the old Chromecast ID to collect the payment means that the 2018 edition will probably arrive at the same $35 price.

The design has been reworked, though, to include matte surface and a simple “G” logo at the outside. Rumor has it that Google has eschewed the magnetic end that allowed you to keep the dongle and connector tightly packed together, but we’ll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

We dug up the FCC ID of the new Chromecast, and it has been granted approval as a “multimedia device” at the end of July. The obvious new thing in terms of features is the addition of Bluetooth connectivity, perhaps for wireless headphones, game controllers and the like. This has been the most requested new feature for Chromecasts for a while now, so we are glad to see that Google will deliver.